Dispensers used to dispense webs of material are widely used and have numerous uses for hand wipes, toilet paper and other wipes. In order to make the object of the invention readily understandable, FIG. 1 shows a general dispensing machine of this type. This machine comprises, in a housing (1), a roller (2) that includes a mechanism for cutting (3) a web of material originating from a reel of material (4). This reel is either hung from support side plate (5) on the housing of the machine in a plane that is perpendicular to the back wall or said reel of material rests on the actual roller itself. The roller has ends that form protruding fingers that rest against and allow centring on the housing's accommodating side plate. To achieve this and in this case, the roller has, over its length and over its peripheral edge, a gripping area that allows the web of material to be held fast in order to facilitate its unwinding. Alternatively and as shown in FIG. 1, a pressure roller (6) presses against the roller. The gap between them leaves clearance for the web of material. The roller has parallel intermediate discs with a notch leaving clearance for the blade-holder. Such an arrangement is described in French Patent No. 2701016.
Depending on the quality of the wipe material, which is generally made of cellulose wadding, and its thickness, which varies depending on the particular market (European or American for example), it is necessary to ensure paper retention under optimum conditions. One proposed solution involves designing the roller with means to ensure retention of the web of material either by using hook-and-loop type strips that are therefore rough or by using sleeves made of an elastomeric material arranged along the roller over all or part of its surface, apart from the area through which the cutting blade moves.
This is described, for example, in the French Patent No. 8319815. The latter also makes provision for designing the roller with a plurality of parallel discs, arranged along the longitudinal axis of the roller, on which the web of material to be cut rests, as shown in French Patent No. 2701016.
The proposed solutions have proved satisfactory in a very large number of industrial applications.
There nevertheless remains the problem of changes in the characteristics of the wipe material and also the durability of the elastomeric sleeves which have a tendency to lose their ability to adhere to the actual roller and no longer retain the web of wipe material.
The invention aims to provide an improved roller for dispensing sheets of wipe materials from a dispenser. The solution according to the invention also aims to provide a roller assembly that makes it possible to reduce the force required to remove a sheet from the dispenser, while preserving the adhesion properties of the roller surfaces with respect to the dispensed material.